eBay scam

Here’s a warning about another scam, claiming to be an eBay invoice (eBay doesn’t do monthly invoices, and the e-mail address from which it claims to be sent is billing@eby.com rather than an address at eBay.com). The link provided fortunately doesn’t seem to work, but it doesn’t lead to eBay’s web site but to http://csccog.org/cal/includes/eBayISAPI.htm That is the site of a church, which is particularly disturbing. Do they know what someone there is up to?

At any rate, this is the important point: Don’t fall for this!

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Dear eBay member,

Your monthly eBay Invoice is now available for online viewing.Invoice Date: February 01, 2008Amount Due: – US $35.00

You can review your current Invoice details and Account Status at any time by clicking this link:View Invoice

For future reference, you can access your invoice by following these steps:

Go to the eBay Homepage http://www.ebay.com/Click My eBay at the top of the page, and sign in with your eBay User ID and password.Click the “Seller Account” link (below My Account in the left navigation menu).Click the “Invoice” link.

Hi James –As always, I am loving your blog. However, I must confess that I enjoy some of your posts more than others. Your posts that talk about biblical studies, the interaction between religion and science, and humorous posts are great. But I’m less enthusiastic about the posts that reproduce phishing attempts that you have received. Sadly, these repetitions of phishing attempts remind me a bit too much of the many phishing and spam messages that clog my own spam filters.I know you have been following this closely, so you are doubtlessly aware of http://www.millersmiles.co.uk/ which has a fairly exhaustive list of these sorts of scams.Maybe you may want to consider creating a new blog devoted to phishing, so the rest of us can concentrate on your many fine original posts. Alternatively, maybe you want to pool forces with http://www.millersmiles.co.uk/.Please take these comments in the constructive spirit that they are offered.All the best!

http://www.blogger.com/profile/02561146722461747647 James F. McGrath

Thanks for the constructive criticism! I am a fan of your blog, too (just for the record). Thus far I have avoided separating my blog along any lines, whether phishing scams, or religion and science vs. Biblical studies. I suspect there will always be readers who are more interested in one or some topics than others. My inclination is to keep it all in one, since it is easy to skip things one isn’t interested in, but in particular with the scam warnings, I think that these (1) might just happen to warn a reader who might not check another site, and (2) bring people searching for information about such an e-mail in their inbox into contact with the other stuff on my blog.I’ll give it more thought, but I actually find it interesting to look at what other scholars are working on and find mingled in things to do with their other interests. I was actually slightly unhappy when Mark Goodacre separated his New Testament and personal blogs – since I think New Testament and Doctor Who fit together naturally!